United with Dan on a Mission

I have returned from a 2 month Outreach in India. For the time there our mission statement was ‘Invitation into Kingdom transformation’; while my personal one was: ‘Take courage and defeat fears, have no regrets, live as much as I can out of a joyful spirit, bringing Kingdom.’

After about 2 hours sleep over a span of 72 hours, I finally got to climb into a bed and sleep. That was my worst travel experience yet. I don’t know whether to call it culture shock or sleep-deprivation, but there were A LOT of things about India that ticked me off.  It was a really difficult time for me, which involved a lot of searching for God, and begging Him for some sleep. My time there, particularly from 10^th – 15^th December, was probably the worst part of my DTS.

The 15^th was our first “evangelism day”. In the park, we read from the Bible before heading out and following the hints of the Spirit. I prayed that God would show Himself to me that day, in a very “real” way. I had no idea how to approach people or whether they spoke English or not, and everyone seemed to be in a hurry… So my group and I decided to do a prayer walk around the park and sing songs, something like a Jericho-walk, and spiritual warfare. Later, I again prayed desperately that God bring someone to talk to me, and that He would be present in a very “real” way and help us/me in this. Before long, someone walked up and greeted me, and in the end asked me to pray for him. God came through and was “real” to me, and I’m sure He will be to that guy too. That very weekend, I also got to share that very testimony in a local Church. From here on and over the festive season things went really well, from house visits, carolling, praying and blessing families. We even got invited to a really upmarket shopping mall to perform our carols. After we had finished, they wanted us to continue… soon we ran out of carols and started to sing worship songs. The demographics there were mostly Hindu and Islamic, and preaching publicly was illegal, so to have the opportunity to do that was major. People gathered all around and for 4 or 5 stories up. The Spirit moved over the crowed and things were happening. At the end of all this, the manager of the Mall was so please that he invited us back another time. When we went back, we saw we had become like celebrities, featuring on videos and posters around the mall. Leading up to our departure from Scotland, while planning our vision statement [Invitation into Kingdom Transformation] I had a vision of 10 000 hands in the air, I believe it related to those events.

During my time there God also gave me a board of Peace and Joy to hang over the entrance to my spirit room, and He did a lot of teaching in standing firm in Him, with boots of peace, and using my faith (the shield) much more effectively. He also showed me, over the festive season, how He had used challenges such as the travel, to push buttons, to create discomfort, so that I could learn to trust him more. He also gave me a gift of poetry and I have been writing the occasional poem since then – even one in Swedish…

On Christmas we had 2 secret Santa gift-giving exchanges; one for our DTS and one for everyone else on the base. In the fun and games of it all, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me guess who was giving me the gift from everyone making up the base. He led me to [Nat] which was the right answer. I had 1 out of 35-ish chance of guessing that right. Soon after it was down to 9 within our DTS, or just 2 actually, because when we pulled names out of the hat I pulled my own name, so I had to put it back and there were only 2 others left after me in the line who could draw it. I then saw [Elf] draw one, and then put it back making me believe she must have drawn her own name too, making the only other name to be drawn from it, mine. So ever-so-confidently I guessed [Elf] was the one. But I was wrong… it was the other person, [Kira] who had it. Then the Holy Spirit whispered to me: “See Daniel how much your own wisdom and understanding amounts to in the end? There really is value in trusting me.”

After about a month in India, my Peace and Joy suddenly disappeared, and life became super-difficult. I was tired of walking all over, the days were too long, the food was inadequate, I never got enough sleep, I was continually over-tired, the days started getting warmer and dryer, and for the first time on DTS (and still continuing) I started getting regular and terrible headaches. I kept searching for God desperately, but He just seemed so far away. After a few weeks, we had a mid-outreach break, in which I went to stay at a western hotel for non-bucket showers, western food, and actual proper mattresses. After this, our group gathered and we were asked to ask God ‘what kind of boat’ are we.

I saw two boats, and God asked, “Which do you feel fits more? The Iron Clad or the Man O’ War? ” I answered, “The Iron Clad, its metal gives it a much colder presence, which is how I feel at the moment. It’s got thicker ‘skin’ to shrug of assaults; it’s got less people on board; it moves under its own power just as I have been for the past few weeks; it’s much slower, more stealthy. Its focus is defence, just like mine has been lately, by putting up walls again.”

Then God said, “Look at the Man O’ War, with its big sails and tall mast… it stands tall out of the water. Unlike the Iron Clad, it has the wind (Holy Spirit) in its sails, it carries much more fire power and packs a heavier punch, its more moveable, it weighs much less and carries less baggage, putting its faith in its power rather than hide behind its shields; it is home to many more people, friends, fellowship and it doesn’t feel like a cold cage on the inside. You were once the Man O’ War, don’t you want to be that again?” God continued to use this to teach me some things; one of which is since the beginning of DTS I had learned to experience His presence, and had grown accustomed to it. In this time of Him being less evident, the difference of what His presence had begun to mean to me, became clearer. When He ‘switched’ his presence back on again it was very evident, and helped me see how I’ve grown and how much more dependent I’ve become on Him.

During our time in India, we also spent a lot of intersession time for government, with specifics for the governor of the area. While we were there, a court case came up and while I don’t remember the particulars exactly, it ended with the high court of India saying, “India is a secular country, making Christian Ministry (publicly) no longer illegal.”

While on outreach we got a chance to co-lead for a week with our leaders. Basically this meant planning the weeks activities, meeting the criteria for DTS and making sure everyone else knows what is happening… and of course, all the usual requirements and responsibilities of a leader. During this week I really got to see how God was. It was decided at the beginning, that I would be leading the 7^th week, which was perfect for me. I tried to be as different and creative with our planning as possible, and the brilliance of God’s timing was evident when we were invited to participate in a Cricket tournament, and the literature festival was also on during that week. It made me feel so special that God had worked that together for me; it was way beyond my control. In my personal space with God I had been praying a lot about the coming week and had told him that I want my shield of Faith to be like a big Roman shield… much bigger than a mustard seed. Without any awareness of this, one of my Leaders blessed me at the start of the week “to stand firm with my shield of faith and focus this week in using it as a weapon”.

When I look back at it, the week went very well, but it did bring some difficult challenges. While I liked it, there’s always some things that stay the same… You have to keep leading when others refuse to follow, yet somehow you’ve got to keep leading without leaving those who won’t follow behind. It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, and I really hate that, because I want everyone to be happy. I went to God and asked His thoughts on it, and I felt like He said, “If they need to be moved, I can move them like I did with those following Moses, or if they slack and miss out – it’s on their heads. At the end of the day- I am your Judge, Daniel – not your followers… Yet continue to love them and be willing to serve them as I do.” By the end of the week, it was a good week, everyone else said I really came ALIVE while leading, and I think I did to. I loved it, and since then, have really felt the desire to come back and staff, and lead outreach teams in the future, God willing.